Latest news – Page 1964

  • News

    Data briefing: prescribing variations by PCT

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    In 2004-05, prescribing cost nearly £8bn in England - over 681 million items at an average of nearly 13 per GP list patient and £150 per year.

  • News

    Michael White on politics

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    What made me flinch wasn't those weekend reports that UK cancer patients are turning to Canadian online pharmacies for drugs they cannot yet get on the NHS.

  • News

    Variation in A&E admissions

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Across England the rise in emergency admissions to hospital shows no sign of abating. Alongside it, bed days also continue to rise. The year-on-year rise in emergency admissions in the first quarter of 2006 was 7 per cent, while the corresponding rise in bed days was 5.9 per cent.

  • News

    Michael white on politics

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Don?t think, Mr or Ms Finance Director, that you can force Ms Hewitt out by hiring some extra doctors or buying a fleet of scanners'

  • News

    Mike White on politics

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'The Lansley policy is that an independent body should allocate resources to each PCT according to need, largely age-related; that health inequality budgets should be paid to directors of public health; and that the shift to a new weighted capitation formula should be done over several years to prevent budget ...

  • News

    Media Watch

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Ding dong as hospital bans carollers,' said The Daily Telegraphas it revealed that the Torbay Gospelaires had been banned from entering Torbay hospital wards.

  • News

    Mediawatch

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    New year, new resolutions, and even the media is backing smokers on their quest to kick the habit.

  • News

    Variance in primary care HRG spending

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    This data briefing from Dr Foster Intelligence shows how primary care spending on healthcare resource groups varies across strategic health authorities. The research covers year-on-year changes in the first quarter of 2006. It is based on the number of spells coded with HRGs and covered by payment by results.

  • News

    Patients' memory of offer of choice

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    It has been nearly a year since choice at the point of referral to hospital by GP was to be formally offered to all patients. Are the poor now getting the choices that have always been available to the rich (to paraphrase former health secretary John Reid)? And through their ...

  • News

    Responses to independence roundtable

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    It appears that participants in the roundtable discussion on independence of the NHS pulled their punches. Let me not pull mine.

  • News

    Richard Bourne on rethinking the role of local government

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Local government may not be brilliant at commissioning but they are better than the NHS. They have been at it longer, they have already embraced provider plurality, commissioning, market management, best value, overview and scrutiny and public engagement'

  • News

    A different kind of revolution

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Northern Ireland's streamlining of its public sector promised to be a less brutal process than England's. But some big holes in performance measurement brought challenges of its own, writes Daloni Carlisle

  • News

    Blears helps win review of redesign

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Major changes to Greater Manchester's health services are to be examined by the independent reconfiguration panel - after the Labour Party chair joined a demonstration against the plans.

  • News

    Trusts told to stop attacking each other

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    The primary care trust network has urged trusts to move on from blaming each other after PCTs came under attack from their acute peers.

  • News

    Hewitt has no 'vested interest' in approving reconfigurations

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Patricia Hewitt does not have a 'vested political interest' in settling reconfiguration rows in favour of trusts, the health minister responsible for patient involvement has insisted.

  • News

    Protestors slam IPPR reconfiguration report

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    An umbrella group of health workers, unions and patients opposed to privatisation and closure plans have rubbished Institute for Public Policy Research reconfiguration claims.

  • News

    Carnall looks to establish the capital's long-term credentials

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    When Ruth Carnall took over as interim chief executive of NHS London in August 2006, she said she would manage it as though she were there for the long term.

  • News

    Marketing code is 'overly bureaucratic'

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    The proposed NHS code of marketing has come under fire from the advertising industry and NHS communications professionals.

  • News

    Reconfiguration: Maidstone faces opposition to emergency surgery consultation

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    A Kent trust's plan to centralise emergency orthopaedic and general surgery work is facing opposition from local people who fear they will have to make longer journeys to access urgent care.

  • News

    Pilots lead way in new era of high-tech 'telecare' at home

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Three primary care trusts will be chosen next month to deliver hardware worth thousands of pounds to the homes of patients with long-term conditions, according to Department of Health head of primary care Gary Belfield.